Vijay Iyer takes a bow for Indo-American Heritage Museum

Jack Vartoogian / Getty

Vijay Iyer, shown in 2013, will be a featured perfomer (along with Fareed Haque) at a fundraiser for Chicago’s Indo-American Heritage Museum on Sunday at Northwestern's Mary Galvin Recital Hall. Iyer will also be inducted into the museum's hall of fame.

Vijay Iyer, shown in 2013, will be a featured perfomer (along with Fareed Haque) at a fundraiser for Chicago’s Indo-American Heritage Museum on Sunday at Northwestern's Mary Galvin Recital Hall. Iyer will also be inducted into the museum's hall of fame. (Jack Vartoogian / Getty)

When pianist Vijay Iyer takes the stage of Northwestern University's Mary Galvin Hall on Sunday afternoon, he'll be doing something more than performing.

In becoming the first inductee in a Hall of Fame created by Chicago's Indo-American Heritage Museum, Iyer will be lending his considerable stature to an ethnic community asserting its place in a famously polyglot city.

For Iyer, the American-born son of Indian immigrants, through his achievements and artistic prowess represents a great deal of what the Indo-American Heritage Museum — and its cause — is all about, according to its champions.

The museum, which doesn't have a physical space but puts on various programs citywide and enjoys a growing audience online, seeks "to promote understanding of the heritage and the culture and the diversity of Indian Americans," says Lakshmi Menon, co-founder and board member of the nonprofit institution.

"Part of our mission is to recognize the achievements and the contributions of Indian Americans," she adds.

The Hall of Fame performance by Iyer — on a double-bill with Chicago guitarist Fareed Haque — will bring heightened visibility to the museum while serving as a fundraiser for its mission.

All of which explains why Iyer decided to participate.

"I'm open to these kinds of efforts from our various communities to shine light on their specific histories, and I'm honored to be included as part of that history," says Iyer, who won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2013 and holds a music professorship at Harvard University.

"I'm proud of my heritage, too, and I'm proud to be a part of this community."

At the same time, though, Iyer defines that heritage in personal ways.

"I think of myself as South Asian American, and I use that label," he says. "And that is a different category, because it's not linked to nation, but rather to geography and then also to a larger notion of community that is transnational.

"All these regions are very tribal. Europe is very tribal, in the sense that it's divided into languages, geography plus local cultures.

"India is not that different in that sense. To understand the South Asian sub-continent as a much larger aggregate of communities that have certain things in common, but also plenty of diversity among them — that's also important to me. To understand that there's no one Indian experience, and also that India is not the only country in South Asia.

"I kind of dismantle these categories," adds Iyer. "I guess I do this with jazz, too."

Yes, indeed, to alluring effect. Though the improvisational character, swing-tinged rhythm and other elements of Iyer's music are steeped in jazz syntax, much of his work also overlaps with avant-garde and contemporary classical techniques. In effect, Iyer draws on multiple musical languages, which reflects his expansive view of his own ethnicity (and vice versa).

This cross-cultural perspective also defines the lineage and art of guitarist Haque, son of a Pakistani father and Chilean mother, whose work encompasses jazz, classical, pop, world and other musical streams.

In effect, artists such as Iyer and Haque — through their decidedly open-eared expression — are redefining national and musical identities.

"My parents came here because they were seeking some kind of change," says Iyer.

"It was a fresh opportunity for them, a whole new set of possibilities, a new reality. That's not to say that they completely abandoned where they came from or that world, but there was a certain kind of transformative energy that was part of their experience, and I learned and absorbed and kind of inherited their experience.

"That's part of it, too, for me. What it means to be a part of a diaspora is to be part of the force for change. We have actually transformed this country, not just because we show up and succeed in things, but because we've changed what this country looks like.

"We've changed what it means to be American by also being American. … That new reality that we are a part of, honestly, Barack Obama is also a part of. He's a son of an African immigrant. Non-Western immigrants are kind of new to the story of America."

And that's part of the story that the Indo-American Heritage Museum seeks to tell.

By featuring two eminent jazz artists, the museum will be articulating its narrative in one of the most viscerally effective ways possible: through music.

That Iyer and Haque agreed to participate in the Hall of Fame concert not only will help the museum raise money to expand its efforts but will serve as a kind of psychological boost for museum advocates.

"It's also showing us what we can do," says Amita Banerji, a museum board member.

"It's giving us a lot of hope. … We couldn't thank Vijay Iyer enough.

"We will thank him from the stage, but I thank him every day in my prayers."